New Gaming Licence Fees Regulations

Gaming Licence Fees Regulations

On the 23^rd December 2017, the current parts of the Remote Gaming Regulations regulating the payment of licence fees and gaming tax have been repealed.  Instead, the new Gaming Licence Fees Regulations have been enacted.  The new Gaming Licence Fees Regulations bring into force part of the new draft gaming law proposed last July 2017.  The rest of the new draft gaming law is expected to come into force in mid-2018.

The new Gaming Licence Fees Regulations are effective as from the 1^st January 2018.  That said there shall be a transitory period whereby existing licensees shall continue paying in accordance with the current Remote Gaming Regulations until 30^th June 2018. As of 1 July 2018, licensees shall start paying gaming licence fees under the new regulations. Reconciliation shall then take place in order to calculate the difference between what was due for the first six months of 2018 (under the current fiscal regime) and the rest of the year under the new regime.

Operators obtaining a licence in 2018 shall pay licence and compliance contributions fees as per the new law immediately.

Below we outline the licence and compliance contribution fees imposed by the new Gaming Licence Fees Regulations.

For B2C licences, that is classes 1, 2 and 3, the new Gaming Licence Fees Regulations provide for the payment of:

• fixed annual licence fee of €25,000; and
• a variable compliance contribution.

The variable compliance contribution is calculated as follows: